Medical devices, medical instruments and medical accessories (collectively “medical devices”) require varying degrees of cleaning, disinfection and/or sterilization to prevent bacteria and mold build-up and for safe use and reuse of devices on the same patient and between patients. There are many types of medical devices that have multiple pieces and accessories that require cleaning, disinfection and/or sterilization including, without limitation, hoses, tubes, facemasks, probes, compartments, reservoirs, irrigation systems, pumps and other accessories. Current devices, systems and methods for preparing medical devices for use and/or reuse have proved to be tiring and difficult for users, hospitals and other medical device provider services. Devices often require daily and weekly maintenance steps to prevent bacteria and mold buildup, requiring each part of the device to be cleaned individually, which is difficult and time consuming for users on a daily or weekly basis. Other cleaning methods include soaking the component parts of a medical device in solvents or mixtures for instance of vinegar and water to disinfect the component parts. Because of the inherent nature for many medical devices to collect bacteria and mold, a number of other products are available for consumers to make medical devices safer to use, including but not limited to sprays, UV light devices, cleaning wipes and cleaning brushes.
Ozone gas is powerful and effective for removal of odors, impurities and dangerous pathogens, working by exchanging electron charge with particles that ozone comes into contact with to form oxygen, O2, from the unstable ozone O3. This process is particularly useful for purifying air and water and for killing bacteria and microorganisms that the ozone comes into contact with. Ozonators can be used to create ozone from oxygen molecules, often by applying ultraviolet light to the oxygen. Ozone gas is made of oxygen molecules that have been ionized by radiation to form groups of three oxygen atoms, O3, and may be created, for instance in a device, using an ozonator, air, and the application of ultraviolet light to convert oxygen into ozone gas. However, while ozone gas is a powerful cleaning, disinfecting and sterilizing gas, ozone gas must be contained and controlled as it is not safe for users to breath ozone gas until it has safely converted back to oxygen. The amount of time that is needed for ozone to convert safely from ozone to oxygen varies significantly based on the amount of ozone used in a treatment cycle, in some embodiments ranging from 1 minute to 24 hours.
It is a long felt need in the art to provide a device, systems and methods that can treat medical devices and medical device passageways with one device using ozone gas, requiring minimum disassembly and yet part specific treatment, all in one or more connected and closed-loop systems for safe use treatment with ozone gas and ease of use by a user. It is further a need to provide connector units to connect a variety of medical devices and medical device passageways for treatment with ozone gas.
Other systems, methods, apparatus features, and advantages of the present disclosure will be or become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, apparatus features, and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the present disclosure, and be protected by the accompanying claims.